


Neglect

by Beth Harker (Beth_Harker)



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: M/M, Modern AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-30
Updated: 2017-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 11:37:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17223326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beth_Harker/pseuds/Beth%20Harker
Summary: Mush’s moms didn’t like it when he went over to Blink’s place. They didn’t mind that he had a boyfriend, and they were warming to Blink himself, but they were protective, and for once Mush could just about see their point.





	Neglect

Mush’s moms didn’t like it when he went over to Blink’s place. They didn’t mind that he had a boyfriend, and they were warming to Blink himself, but they were protective, and for once Mush could just about see their point. Piles and heaps of barely identifiable junk and garbage completely obscured the floor, and most of the surfaces of the house that Blink shared with his mom, Sherry. Usually, Mush ignored it, found the clearest path to Blink’s bed, and crowded onto it with Blink like it was a life raft, talking and holding hands there for hours on end. The smell of the house always seemed to fade away after the first fifteen minutes, anyway. If Blink had survived living there for his whole life, then Mush could survive a visit.

Helping to clean it though… that was a different story. The two of them had been going for an hour and a half, cleared out a small corner, and filled five large trash bags. Mush lifted up an old pizza box, only to have the top layer of the cardboard stick to the damp floor. Eight or nine unidentifiable insects– big, with swervy bodies and long antennas—scurried off in every direction. Mush dropped the box, and swallowed hard.

That’s when he noticed Blink standing with his face to the wall, hands clenching and unclenching, breath ragged. Mush wiped his hands on his jeans, then came up behind Blink, putting his hand on the other boy’s shoulder.

“Hey,” Mush said softly. He couldn’t tell Blink that it wasn’t that bad, because it was that bad, and worse. He couldn’t even tell him that they’d take care of it, like Mush had been so sure they would at the beginning of the day. It was, quite frankly, overwhelming. “I can see why you didn’t try and do this sooner,” Mush said instead, very gently. “It’s hard, right?”

Blink nodded, quick and ragged. Mush wished that they could just wake Sherry up. A half of the mess was hers, after all, but she didn’t get up before three PM. Distressingly, she was the better one of Blink’s parents.

“When we get our own place, it’ll be nothing like this,” Mush promised. Usually, Blink was the one to talk about the two of them moving in together, and he did it the same way that Jack talked about Santa Fe. Mush’s moms warned him against talking that way. They told him that he’d meet a lot of people in his life, and that it wasn’t his job to try to fix anybody.

“Or when you get your own place,” Mush amended. “With or without me.”

“I can see why you wouldn’t want to…” Blink’s voice was rough.

“I don’t care about any if this,” Mush said. “Things got out of hand. I get it.”

“That’s the under statement if the year,” Blink muttered. He sighed, seeming almost to deflate. “But I appreciate you making it.”


End file.
